UNDER-SEIGE Essendons defiant stance against the AFL has received support from a couple of Australian sports most controversial big names.

Former North Melbourne champion Wayne Carey suggested that if the AFL wanted “a speedy resolution to the supplements scandal it should consider bowing to (James) Hird's demand for an independent tribunal".

Meanwhile Sydney shock jock and former Wallabies coach Alan Jones has made the extraordinary claim that the AFL charging Essendon was "Lindy Chamberlain revisited".

Carey acknowledged it was blatantly obvious that there were serious failings at Essendon during the controversial supplements program in 2012.

He suggested there needed to be high-profile scalps to justify the Australian Crime Commission’s claim in early February that the release of its drugs in sport report was "the blackest day in Australian sporting history".

"It’s all about trying to nail someone, so Essendon will do," Jones said.

He criticised the AFL for being prosecutor, jury and now judge, suggesting Demetriou had "invited ASADA to his drugs party and now wants them out of his house.

"The AFL Commission, if they’ve got half a brain, will call this charade off," Jones said.

He suggested that Hird and Essendon needed "to stick to their guns and let the AFL boil in its own juice".

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